Ann McElhinney

Ann McElhinney is a journalist and documentary film director and producer. Her work examining the real life costs of environmental policies has outraged many in the environmentalist movement and she has received several death threats.

An inspiring and entertaining public speaker, she was voted the most popular speaker after Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter at CPAC. One blogger recently described her as “the Irish Sarah Palin” (it was not meant as a compliment.)

She is the director and producer of FrackNation (2013)-a documentary on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and the natural gas boom in the US and abroad. FrackNation shows how unfounded opposition to fracking is damaging the lives of some of the poorest and hardest working people in America. FrackNation dispels myths and tells the story of the people directly affected by fracking bans.

FrackNation premiered January 22, 2013 on Mark Cuban’s AXS TV. The New York Times called the film “meticulously researched…provocative.” And Variety said it was a “briskly paced…mischievous pic.”

FrackNation bypassed traditional funding methods and instead turned to Kickstarter, a crowd-funding website. In 60 days, 3,305 backers donated $212,265 to tell the truth about fracking. It was one of the most successful campaigns in Kickstarter history.

She has also recently produced and directed a series of short films exposing environmental hypocrites who want others to live with less, but who refuse to change their own lifestyles: James Cameron Hypocrite, Robert Redford Hypocrite and Prince Charles Hypocrite. Her short films have garnered over 2.5 million views on YouTube.

In 2009, she produced and directed Not Evil Just Wrong, a film which examines the devastating consequences of the global warming hysteria. The film highlights the tragic consequences of the first triumph of the environmental movement, the ban on DDT, which has needlessly resulted in the deaths of more than 40 million children and adults in the developing world.

Previously, McElhinney produced and directed Mine Your Own Business (2006) – the first documentary that asks difficult questions of the

environmental movement. As a result, 80 NGOs, including Greenpeace, called for the film to be banned when it was screened in the National Geographic auditorium in Washington DC. Protestors compared Mine Your Own Business to “Nazi propaganda” and “pornography” .

However, Canada’s The National Post said “Mine Your Own Business is devastating because it combats prejudices and fantasies with pictures that refute thousands of weasel words. Images spun from afar. It deserves to be seen by anybody who wants to understand the impact on poor people of radical environmentalism.

McElhinney has also made documentaries for the BBC, CBC (Canada) and RTE (Ireland). The Search for Tristan’s Mum (RTE, 2005) concerned the case of Tristan Dowse, a baby who was adopted by an Irish man and his wife in Indonesia. Two years later, when the adoptive mother became pregnant, they abandoned Tristan in an Indonesian orphanage.

The case outraged Ireland and McElhinney tracked down Tristan’s natural mother and, going undercover, infiltrated the baby-selling ring. Tristan is now living with his natural mother in Indonesia and the baby sellers are serving lengthy jail sentences.

The Irish government initiated a high court protection order to protect Tristan’s interests and when delivering his judgment, Justice John McMenamin said McElhinney deserved the “highest of praise” for her investigative journalism.

McElhinney was featured in and was the Associate Producer of the highly controversial documentary Return to Sender (2005) for CBC.

McElhinney has also written for or is a regular contributor to an array of international media organizations including CNN, FOX News, ABC (US), BBC, CBC (Canada), ABC (Australia), RTE (Ireland), The Sunday Times and the Irish Times. She is a regular on a number of US talk radio shows including Hugh Hewitt, the Dennis Miller and Randi Rhodes show.

She is a regular contributor to Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood site.

McElhinney has worked as a journalist and filmmaker in the US, Canada, Romania, Bulgaria, Chile, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Ghana and Uganda.

She has most recently spoken at conferences in Washington DC, New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Toronto, Grand Rapids, Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis, Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City. She also lectures on campuses across the US on the dangers of environmental extremists and the scam of sustainability.

McElhinney produces and directs documentaries with her husband Phelim McAleer.

Filmography

FrackNation (2013) Director & Producer

Not Evil Just Wrong (2009) Director & Producer

Mine Your own Business (2006) Director & Producer

The Search for Tristan’s Mum (RTE, 2005) On Screen Journalist

Return to Sender (CBC, 2005) Associate Producer

Romanian Twins (BBC, 2004) Assistant Producer

Speaking topics

1) The Dangers of Environmentalism

2) How Business has lost its Guts (and how the poor will suffer for their cowardice)

3) Capitalism – A Love Story: How I rejected liberalism and learned to love Capitalism